OSHA to Further Ease COVID-19 Reporting Rules
- Under newly released regulations by the Centers for Disease Control employers will no longer be required to routinely investigate every employee COVID-19 case for OSHA recordkeeping purposes and no longer add COVID-19 cases to their OSHA 300 Log.
- Facilities must continue following all infection-control, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, public health, workers’ compensation and internal procedures., but serious, unusual or clearly work-related cases may still be reviewed individually.
- The new regulations follow on an OSHA enforcement policy update in March, that states covered employers will not be cited for failing to record COVID-19 cases on the OSHA 300 Log or for failing to report COVID-related hospitalizations or fatalities to OSHA.
- That March 2026 update built on an earlier change in February 2025, when OSHA stopped enforcing the special COVID-19 log required under the Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard, though employers were still required to follow standard OSHA recordkeeping rules for work-related COVID-19 cases at that time.
MNOSHA Reviewing Contractor’s Death at Refinery
- A contractor died Sunday while working at Marathon Petroleum’s St. Paul Park refinery in Minnesota, with the St. Paul Park Police Department investigating the cause of the fatal industrial incident.
- Emergency personnel responded on Sept. 20 to reports of an injured contractor, finding an adult male who was pronounced dead at the scene.
- Marathon Petroleum Corp. said the worker “lost consciousness while working on a refinery unit” and that emergency responders performed rescue operations.
- The company will conduct its own investigation to determine the cause, and the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MNOSHA) is reviewing the incident.
Worker Injured after Electrical Shock, Ladder Fall at Dollar General Site
- A construction worker was critically injured Sept. 16 after suffering an electrical injury and falling from a tall ladder at a Dollar General store under construction in Woodstock, Illinois.
- The Woodstock Fire/Rescue District responded and found the man semi-conscious inside the building.
- Given the severity of his injuries, a medical helicopter transported him to Javon Bea Hospital–Riverside in Rockford with critical, life-threatening injuries.
- The city of Woodstock Building and Planning Department also responded to the scene following the incident.